Attorney provisionally struck off

A DURBAN attorney has been provisionally struck off the roll by the Pietermaritzburg High Court for allegedly taking R514 486 from the estate of a deceased person and lending it to a funeral parlour director.

Prebashini Odayar, an attorney for the past 14 years, has been given until August 28 to show why the provisional order granted on May 21 should not be made final by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

The Morningside attorney’s alleged brush with the law began after a Ms V Seerbath lodged a complaint against her with the KwaZuluNatal Law Society, that she (Odayar) had fobbed her off when she sought feedback as to how much money was in the estate of her late mother, Anandhi Seerbath.

Seerbath had informed the society that she suspected that Odayar had allegedly misappropriated funds from her late mom’s estate.

The society subsequently asked its inspection panel, which included attorney Raj Badal, to probe the complaint.

The panel concluded that Odayar had made unauthorised loans totalling R514 486 to Central Funeral Services director Collin Dennis Peter.

The money was apparently withdrawn from Seerbath’s estate and deposited into the funeral parlour’s account on December 30, 2102, and February 15, 2013.

Transactions

The transactions concerning Odayar and Central Funeral Services in Umgeni Road, Durban, were alluded to in court documents by the society’s Nadira Harripersad, assistant manager, regulatory affairs.

According to Harripersad’s affidavit, when Seerbath had enquired from Odayar the status of the winding up of the estate, Odayar, in making excuses, said her e-mail was out of order and her cellphone was broken.

It emerged in another application initiated by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, where an order was sought to have another Morningside attorney, Subashini Moodley struck off, that Odayar was appointed as an executrix in the “second will” of a dead homeless man, Theodore Charles Minnie.

Minnie perished in a blaze in a wendy house in Vera Road, Malvern, in October 2013.

The tragedy happened some six months after the Road Accident Fund deposited R560 000 as his payout into Moodley’s trust account.

The claim was lodged with the fund after Minnie’s leg was amputated following a road smash.

Moodley is opposing the bid to have her struck off following claims by Minnie’s ex-wife, Vijayluxmi Gengan, that Moodley had defrauded her and her teenage daughter, Dinalee, of the payout by the fund.

Gengan hired Bhopa Investigations to probe what happened to the payout.

Moodley denied that she had misappropriated the money.

She claimed that Minnie had revoked his first will, in which his daughter was a beneficiary and his ex-wife the executrix, and in the second will had made her (Moodley) the sole beneficiary.

Moodley said Odayar was appointed as the executix.

Moodley admitted that she had “borrowed” the entire R560 000 (less her legal fees totalling R120 000) from Minnie.

She claimed she had agreed to pay back the “loan” within 12 months.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court will in due course rule whether the matter should go to trial or not.